Entrepreneurial students take next step to develop their start-ups

The students of this year's Spring edition of the Venture Academy are ready to roll: this Friday will see the start of their 12-week free course on how to become better entrepreneurs and make their start-up a success.

The Venture Academy participants dream big: their ambitions are not based on making a quick fortune, instead they want to change the way we live, work and treat the world around us.

For example, Precious Plastic Den Haag would like like to create a solution to reduce the pollution of plastic in this region, from creating awareness to recycling waste. Food Clan also wants to encourage change: they are looking to create a platform that will help people live a healthier lifestyle, starting in their own homes. Mine Mark, on the other hand, is looking further afield: their goal is find a way to educate children and youngsters in landmine prone areas to safely deal with landmines and other remnants of war.

So why have these students chosen to apply to the Venture Academy? Start-up Simpolicy explains: “We want to network with other inspiring entrepreneurs and receive more formal guidance toward a successful business plan.” Food Clan gives a similar reason: “We applied to the Venture Academy with the motivation of improving our entrepreneurial skills, which will help us in the process of realising our product and maximising it’s impact.” GradUp adds: “We want to put our business development skills to the test, meet accomplished professionals in order to learn from them and use our free time in a productive manner.”

Some teams were start-ups before they applied and some, like SmartNet, see it as logical follow up to the Leiden University minor Innovation, Cocreation and Global Impact. Hotel School student Gatchik Grigoriants believes it links perfectly with his graduation project and hopes to learn more from working together with students from a variety of educational institutions. Whatever their reason, each Venture Academy team is ready to go, fueled by strong motivation, dedication to their cause and the belief that their idea will come to fruition.

What the teams would like to get out of it? Their answers are mostly unanimous: a solid business plan, contact with potential investors and above all: a good time.